Search Results for ‘(“C’
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I knew a guy who made applejack from apples that grew on his farm. He'd let the jug sit out in the winter and after it froze he'd chop through the ice to pour off the fermented applejack, it had a REAL kick by then!
Local legend had it that his trees and some others in Jo Daviess County were the descendants of ones planted by John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed), but the Johnny Appleseed historians have no record of him ever having visited NW Illinois, where I grew up.
I checked and the orchard to the south is not u-pick, and they only sell at farmers' markets (including Indianapolis!) I'll see if there are any around Rockville, where we will go for the covered bridge festival in October. We'll be in west central Indiana.
Addendum: My husband thinks that there will be plenty of apples available at the festival. He remembers that from years ago, and says there was fresh-pressed cider as well--so will I please stop bugging him about our route. Sigh. Non-bakers just do not understand about sourcing the right ingredients, but they certainly appreciate eating the results!
Mike, I hadn't thought of a marble board. I was thinking only granite. I appreciate you mentioning it and checking to see who might have one online. I found that one of the sites had one without any description. A different site's reviews were fraught with accounts of products arriving broken. The company graciously replaced the broken ones. I don't recall why I nixed the third site. You put me on the right track, so I checked Amazon.
I found one sold by Sur La Table. So I went to Sur's website, where they're offering free shipping for it (yesterday). I decided I preferred to buy it from the store. A call there said they had one. It's a long trek from my home, but hubby and I went there. I took him, because it was reviewed as having a shipping weight of 25 pounds.
Now, the marble slab sits atop my movable island waiting for its first project. The problem is that the legs it's on slide on the countertop. So I have to go to Walmart and buy a non-slip product to put under the legs for using it. From the reviews, I knew this was a problem before I bought it. Nevertheless, I'm pleased with it and planning its maiden voyage. Thanks, Mike!
I used a recipe from Baking Illustrated, with 1/3 less sugar and double the cinnamon (from 1/4-1/2 tsp.), along with nutmeg, allspice, and a bit of salt.
I realized this morning that what I thought was pastry flour was actually Bob's Red Mill unbleached, extra-fine cake flour (label had come off). I've had to move flours around to smaller containers with the move, and with the refrigerator switch, so the mistake got made. It was a wonderful dough to roll and shape.
Additional comment: The crust was surprisingly flakey, while perhaps not as light as pastry flour would have made it. My husband and I both like it.
The Redfree apples did indeed make a good pie, although as I expected, there was a bit of an air pocket in the center. I had tasted a bit of the juice that was dribbling out last night when I removed the pie from the oven, and these are indeed wonderful apples that did well with the lower amount of sugar. I was disappointed that the vender was not at the farmers' market this morning, as he said they would be. I had planned to buy more of the apples and freeze some as pie filling and some as applesauce.
There was another vender selling Gala apples, but why bother? I need to find a "You-Pick" orchard that has good pie apples.
It was probably in the late 1990s that I bought a bread board from King Arthur. I was new to their catalog and they were advertising a bread board--a large board with an Italian name that meant "little table." (According to the catalog, a man would give it as a wedding gift to his wife.) I used it for a long time. It has a lip on the bottom so that the board won't move away from you as you are kneading, and it has a raised area on the back to keep flour from spilling off. I still made a bit of a mess, but it cut down on it. To clean, I had to scrape the dried dough with a bench knife. I also wiped it lightly with a damp cloth.
I still have it, but I have not used it for a long time. I started using the Silpat mat (ok, also bought from KAF), and it made kneading so much easier--no sticking!--no need for extra flour, and clean-up was a breeze. I did use the board under the silpat mat when I was kneading on a kitchen table that was rather low. Then I got my stand mixer, and I don't knead by hand much anymore. I shape my breads on the mat. Still, I keep it, and perhaps will use it again some time.
